While it's hard to believe in our go-go 21st century lives, we have a lot more free time than our parents did. Yes, in the swinging 60's, people weren't just go-go-ing on the dance floor. Women in the U.S. now have 6 hours more free time each week than they did 40 years ago, while men have 8 hours. The rise in spare time is mainly thanks to advances like dishwashers and disposable diapers... for example, women now spend 20 hours each week ironing, washing and cleaning compared to the 40 hours a week their Mothers did. This said, we're also reading less and spending less time in church.
Where's all the new leisure time going? Two-thirds of our new found freedom is spent in front of the boob tube. On an average work day, workers spend 10.5 hours at work or commuting, 4 hours taking care of the kids or older parents, and 4 hours a day at leisure. If you do the math, this leaves 5.5 hours of sleep....
So why do people seem to think they're busier now? Survey says it's the amount of choice for free time activities - so, while we have lots more 'free' hours each week, we fill these hours up with more activities and are 'busier' when we're not working.
Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time over Five Decades, by Mark Aguiar and Erik Hurst http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/fac/erik.hurst/research/aguiar_hurst_leisure_nber_submit_final.pdf
General Social Survey: Time use (Canadian workers) http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/991109/d991109a.htm
